1. Technical Field
This application is the U.S. national phase of international application PCT/GB2004/003852, filed 8 Sep. 2004, which designated the U.S. and claims priority of GB 0322857.4, filed 30 Sep. 2003, the entire contents of each of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
This invention relates to telecommunications connection apparatus, and is of particular relevance in the context of terminating and connecting cables to connect customer premises to the external telecommunications network at end user entry points.
2. Related Art
In a typical customer's premises, telephones and such telecommunications devices are connected to the external telecommunications network at a network termination point, which is the physical demarcation point between the customer's premises and the network of external network service providers (such as British Telecommunications pic in the UK). External cables, typically copper pairs at the present time, arrive either overhead or underground from distribution points to the wall of the customer's premises. They are then passed through the fabric of the wall and terminated within the premises in network termination equipment units (e.g. the NTE 5 or NTE Elite modules) which are housing boxes mounted on or partly recessed In the customer's interior wall. These network termination boxes include sockets ready to receive a compatible connector plug (e.g. the RJ-11 or RJ-45).
The typically white plastic termination boxes currently in use are relatively large and can protrude about 36 mm from the wall when mounted. Their bulk can be aesthetically displeasing and further the boxes are vulnerable to being bumped or knocked into and damaged.
The trend however has been that increasing numbers of these termination boxes are being deployed in customer's premises, particularly in residences. For example, the rise in the numbers of people working from home requiring work-dedicated telephone lines, facsimile lines and Internet and intranet access, etc., has meant that the chunky plastic termination boxes can no longer be easily hidden away in a corner of the house. While people have come to accept a profusion of unsightly wall outlet boxes in an office or working environment, littering residential premises with these boxes is an unattractive but currently unavoidable proposition.
Additionally, the advent of Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) and Home Phoneline Networking Alliance (HPNA) has meant that the space taken up by such telecommunications plant has increased further. Microfilters and other forms of electronics have to sit in a position between the network termination point socket within the unit and the plug from the customer apparatus, be it the telephone or the computer modem.
Yet another issue arises from the issue of upgradeability from copper to optical fibre. While currently domestic subscribers' premises are generally connected with copper wire electrical cable, domestic subscribers who wish to have a “fibre to the home” connection must have their copper replaced by fibre which necessitates all replacement of all existing termination and access arrangements. It is also expected that in the future the entire network, including the access network into customer's premises, will be constituted by fibre. Replacement of not just the cable but also the surrounding infrastructure is required as the properties of optical cable and copper wires are quite different, as discussed below, so that cable runs, building entry methods and network termination equipment for fibre will have to be treated differently.
In particular, the way optical fibre is routed into customer's premises and terminated will be very different from current methods for copper pairs. Optical fibre generally has a wider minimum permissible bend radius than copper wire, which can usually be bent through 90 degrees or less, without significantly impairing its transmission ability. Optical fibre on the other hand is very sensitive to bends along its length, and bending more tightly than, a minimum bend point (the “minimum bend radius” or “minimum permitted bend radius”) would cause unacceptable optical losses. A known way to manage the minimum bend radius of optical fibre entering customer premises through the wall fabric is described in EP 0748460. This device and method is further described below against FIG. 1, but it essentially involves controlling the path of the exiting cable, to reduce the fibre's radius to substantially its minimum, while guarding against fibre breakage or loss. The external cable passing through the walls into the premises is then typically terminated on the inner wall in a separate wall outlet box, to which socket a RJ-45 connector will be plugged.
According to the prior art device and method, the problem of the bulk is made worse in that there are now at least two sets of housing or boxes on the internal wall of a customer's premises—one to manage the optical fibre bend as it enters the premises, in addition to the wall outlet box.